Jack Straw: In December 2003, in the White Paper: "UK International Priorities: a Strategy for the FCO" (Cm 6052), I set out the Government's international priorities for the next 5–10 years and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office's strategy for delivering them in a world of new challenges, opportunities and threats.
	On the basis of that strategy and the outcome of the 2004 spending round, we have been completing a reorganisation of the FCO in London and considering changes to our overseas network in order to align our resources more effectively to our priorities.
	This statement concerns changes to the overseas network, aimed at enhancing our effectiveness in representing British interests abroad, and helping to deliver an efficient service on behalf of the British taxpayer.
	Context
	The FCO's overseas network currently comprises:
	153 sovereign posts (embassies and high commissions) staffed by UK-based diplomats and local staff;
	70 subordinate posts (consulates general and consulates) reporting to an embassy or high commission;
	10 missions to international organisations and conferences such as the UN, the EU and NATO; and
	resident governors in nine of the 14 overseas territories.
	Since 1997 we have made a series of changes in the overseas network to respond to changing priorities. UK-based staff numbers have grown by 9 per cent. from about 5,600 in 1997 to about 6,100 now. We have opened 18 new sovereign and subordinate posts with UK-based staff since 1997, along with 13 locally-staffed posts. Some 10 posts have been closed over the same period (excluding the announcements in this statement). By comparison France, with a network of almost identical size to our own, has since 2000 opened nine new posts and closed three. Germany today has 11 fewer posts than in 1997.
	In the past three years the UK has opened major new missions in Baghdad, Basra, Kabul and Pyongyang (North Korea) in response to changing needs.
	This statement sets out some further changes to our overseas network. As with changes in the past, they reflect changing demands and challenges, and the need better to align our resources with our priorities, to maximise efficiency, and to ensure that the UK has a cost-effective and flexible network of overseas representation.
	Sovereign Posts
	We intend to close eight sovereign Posts with UK-based staff, and one locally-staffed post (Tarawa, Kiribati). Details are set out in the following table:
	
		
			 Post Planned change 
		
		
			 Asia Pacific 
			 Port Vila (Vanuatu) Close. Appoint Honorary Consul. Cover from Suva (Fiji) 
			 Nuku'alofa (Tonga) Close. Cover from Suva (Fiji) 
			 Dili (East Timor) Close. Appoint Honorary Consul. Cover from Jakarta. (Indonesia) 
			 Tarawa (Kiribati) (currentlya locally staffed post) Close. Cover from Suva (Fiji) 
			 Americas 
			 Asuncion (Paraguay) Close. Appoint Honorary Consul. Cover from Buenos Aires (Argentina) 
			 Nassau (Bahamas) Close. Appoint Honorary Consul with additional local staff support for consular work. Cover from Kingston (Jamaica) 
			 Africa 
			 Maseru (Lesotho) Close. Appoint Honorary Consul. Cover from Pretoria (South Africa) 
			 Mbabane (Swaziland) Close. Appoint Honorary Consul. Cover from Pretoria (South Africa) 
			 Antananarivo (Madagascar) Close. Appoint Honorary Consul. cover from Port Louis (Mauritius) 
		
	
	All these cover arrangements are subject to confirmation and agreement with the host governments concerned.
	Separately, in Europe, there is no question of closing down our embassy to the Holy See. However, we have concluded that we will be able to maintain our interests if we widen the pool of potential candidates as ambassador to beyond the FCO when we look for a successor to the present incumbent next summer.
	Subordinate Posts
	We also plan to streamline UK representation in subordinate posts (primarily in OECD countries) in line with UK Trade and Investment's (UKTI) new approach to trade promotion in developed countries (see below), while expanding our honorary consul network world-wide. Experience for example in our posts in Italy has shown that fully-localised posts are able to deliver services in a cost-efficient, professional and effective way under the strategic direction of the superintending embassy; and our plans extend that model elsewhere. We expect political work to be carried out mainly in capitals, except in large, federal countries like the USA.
	We propose moving to locally engaged staff only in eleven posts. And we plan to close ten subordinate posts altogether. Changes are set out in the following table, together with details of how the network in each country will look after these changes have been made.
	
		
			 Country Planned change Network after change 
		
		
			 Australia 
			 BrisbanePerth Localise. Cover from Sydney.Localise. Cover from Sydney. UK based: Canberra, Sydney, Melbourne. Local: Brisbane, Perth, Adelaide. 
			 New Zealand 
			 Auckland Localise. Cover consular cases from Wellington, and UKTI work from Sydney UK Based: Wellington.Local: Auckland. 
			 Japan 
			 Fukuoka Close. Cover from Osaka. UK based: Tokyo, Osaka, Nagoya. 
			 Laos 
			 Vientiane (Laos) (Trade Office) Close. Cover from Bangkok. No post in Laos: covered from Bangkok. 
			 United States 
			 SeattleMiamiPhoenixDallasSan Juan (Puerto Rico) Localise. Cover from San Francisco.Localise. Cover from Atlanta.Close. Cover from Los Angeles.Close. Cover from Houston.Close. Cover from Atlanta. UK Based: Washington, Atlanta, , Boston, Chicago, Houston, Denver, Los Angeles, BCG New York, San Francisco.Local: Miami, Seattle, Orlando 
			 France 
			 BordeauxLyon Localise. Cover from Paris.Localise. Cover from Paris. UK Based: Paris, LilleLocal: Bordeaux, Lyon, Marseilles. 
			 Germany 
			 MunichHamburgFrankfurtLeipzigStuttgart Localise. Cover from Dusseldorf.Localise. Cover from Dusseldorf.Close. Cover from Dusseldorf. Close. Cover from Berlin.Close. Cover from Dusseldorf. UK Based: Berlin, Dusseldorf.Local: Hamburg, Munich. 
			 Spain 
			 PalmaBilbao Localise. Cover from Madrid.Localise. Cover from Madrid. UK Based: Madrid, Barcelona Local: Alicante, Malaga, Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Bilbao, Palma, Ibiza, Las Palmas. 
			 Portugal 
			 Oporto Close. Cover from Lisbon. UK Based: Lisbon. 
			 Cameroon 
			 Douala Close. Cover from Yaounde. UK Based: Yaounde. 
		
	
	In Aden, we will retain the services of our local consul, but move from the existing consulate to smaller premises with a view to establishing an honorary consulate.
	UK Trade and Investment
	The Foreign and Commonwealth Office has worked closely with UKTI in formulating these proposals. UKTI is focusing its overseas resources where its commercial teams can make the most impact. This includes strengthening our work to attract inward investment to the UK, and reinforcing support for British businesses in important emerging markets, like China, where government support makes a real difference to business, and where very strong economic growth means enormous opportunities. My right hon. Friend the Chancellor of the Exchequer's recent announcement of the establishment of an Asia task force will build on this strategy.
	To provide the resources for these new activities, UKTI has decided to take a number of steps better to match resources to demand. Commercial services in a number of smaller markets are being re-organised. In the UK's smallest overseas markets, UKTI services themselves in FCO posts covering these markets will be withdrawn, although support and advice from UKTI's website and from its teams in London will still be available. And, importantly, political support and lobbying by ambassadors and high commissioners in support of British business in these markets will continue to be available everywhere.
	Timing and Savings
	We plan to have implemented all these changes before the end of 2006. The main savings from the package will be in staff and running costs, including rentals. There will be some one-off costs, including for redundancy. But once these have been met, overall savings should amount to around £6 million per annum as a contribution to the FCO's overall efficiency target of £86 million. (A further £0.5 million of savings are part of our efficiency plan for the 2002 spending review). There will be some revenue from asset sales, although these will take time to realise.
	The savings made will help to underpin higher-priority work in line with the FCO's strategic priorities, including on counter proliferation, counter terrorism, energy and climate change. Some of the savings will also be redeployed to strategic priority work within certain regions where we are closing posts. In Africa, for instance, we plan to create new jobs to cover these issues across the region, with a new post in Nairobi to help support our work on climate change, one in Nigeria to cover energy, and one in Pretoria to cover regional issues more generally as well as covering Maseru and Mbabane.